zaterdag 22 mei 2010

"We need to continue and step up the pressure on Israel, regardless of whether the peace talks are resumed or not," he said. "We need to rally international support for our cause and impose sanctions on Israel. We must pursue Israel in all international bodies and institutions."

Shaath said Fatah's declared strategy was "to endorse a growing nonviolent popular struggle" against Israel, in light of the fact that the "armed struggle" had become impossible and undesirable at this phase.He said that during a recent visit to Gaza he told Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh that "Arab, regional and international circumstances don't allow us to launch an armed struggle against Israel."

A furious Jerusalem on Thursday denounced a declared Palestinian Authority effort to isolate Israel and eventually have it expelled from the UN as both outrageous and risible.

"Israel is not going to be kicked out of the UN," said a senior Israeli official. "This is ridiculous."

He was speaking after the PA announced that it was stepping up its diplomatic and economic "intifada" against Israel.

The idea of intensifying a campaign of delegitimization, leading ultimately to Israel's UN expulsion, was unveiled on Wednesday night by Nabil Shaath, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and one of the chief architects of the Oslo Accords.

Speaking at a conference in Ramallah, Shaath said: "There is a need to create and endorse new struggling tools, such as the popular resistance, and to increase our efforts in the international arena to isolate and punish Israel, prevent it from deepening its relations with the European Union and attempt to expel it from the United Nations."

The "nature of the Jews and the Holocaust in Germany helped Jewish communities establish strong strategic ties with countries that have influence in the international arena," added Shaath, a former PA foreign minister who is closely associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli official said such a campaign stood "in complete contrast to the peace process."

He added: "You can't on one hand say you want peace with Israel, and on the other hand act to delegitimize us. This is unacceptable and raises questions as to the Palestinian commitment to peace and reconciliation."

The official said that Israel would raise these issues in the proximity talks, as it already did on Thursday during the talks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US envoy George Mitchell, when Netanyahu protested against the Palestinians failed effort to block Israel's admittance into the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).

"We will put these issues front and center in our talks," the official said. "This is totally contradictory to a successful peace process and demonstrates that parts of the Palestinian leadership are stuck in a conflict mindset and are incapable of moving toward peace and reconciliation."

The official pointed to the PA's OECD campaign as evidence that there was no chance of Israel losing its seat on the world body.

"At the OECD they only needed to win one vote out of 31 to block our entrance, and were unable to get it," he said.

The problem was not that the Palestinians might succeed, he added. The problem was the negative mindset that these attempts represented.

Orchestrated by the PA government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the new Palestinian "uprising" also calls for "peaceful demonstrations" in the West Bank against settlements and the security barrier and waging a total boycott of all products manufactured in the settlements.

At the Ramallah conference, which was also broadcast to the Gaza Strip, Shaath called on Palestinians to intensify pressure on Israel through nonviolent means.

"We need to continue and step up the pressure on Israel, regardless of whether the peace talks are resumed or not," he said. "We need to rally international support for our cause and impose sanctions on Israel. We must pursue Israel in all international bodies and institutions."

Shaath said Fatah's declared strategy was "to endorse a growing nonviolent popular struggle" against Israel, in light of the fact that the "armed struggle" had become impossible and undesirable at this phase.

He said that during a recent visit to Gaza he told Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh that "Arab, regional and international circumstances don't allow us to launch an armed struggle against Israel."

Therefore, he added, the Palestinians should mobilize their energies to wage a "peaceful resistance" against Israel by isolating it and stepping up the pressure on it.The nonviolent struggle was "not less honorable than the armed struggle and does not mean surrender to Israeli conditions," Shaath said.

Called for monitoring Israeli violations and reporting them to the American government.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said that the Palestinians should act to isolate Israel in the international scene, try to bring about its expulsion from the U.N. and prevent it from deepening its ties with the European Union. Nabil Shaath estimated that the chances are very low that the proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians will succeed and called for monitoring the Israeli violations and reporting them to the American government on a daily basis.

In another matter, Shaath repeated what he said at a meeting in London recently that the Holocaust helped the Jews establish strong strategic ties with influential nations in the world.

Nail Shaath said this is a lecture broadcast in a conference call from Ramallah to Gaza and excerpts were quoted by the Palestinian news agency Maan.

BRUSSELS -An Italian centre-right member of the European Parliament decided on Thursday to quit an official delegation due to visit Israel next week because he feels his fellow MEPs are too "anti-Israeli."

Gabriele Albertini, a member of the European Poeple's Party (EPP) who heads the influent European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, explained his decision by the fact that the composition of the delegation was "not balanced," his assistant, Luca Toschi, told EJP.

"Rather than a peacekeeping mission, it looks like an anti-Israeli propaganda mission is being prepared," Albertini, a former mayor of Milan, said.

The delegation of 25 MEPs from the foreign affairs, development and humanitarian aid committees, was due to have talks with members of the Knesset.

However, a plan to visit Gaza was rejected by the Israeli authorities as part of the Israel's policy not to allow foreign officials visitors to enter the Palestinian territory run by Hamas because those visits "give moral support to the Islamist group."

Albertini then stressed to his colleagues that the delegation should "re balance" its itinerary in line with Israeli demands but several members of the delegation felt "offended" by the refusal and voted to ask Egypt to enter Gaza through its crossing point instead. They also decided to snub a scheduled meeting with Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat.

"The MEPs wrongly thought that Israel was targeting the European Parliament while even French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was denied the right to entry into Gaza earlier this year," Luca Toschi said.

According to the EUobserver website, Albertini singled out his German centre-right colleague and former European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering for criticism.

"The honorable Mr Poettering wanted to convene a press conference to censure the conduct of the Israeli government before we start our journey," he said.

The German MEP reportedly replied that he "is of the opinion that the Israeli government cannot tell the members of the European Parliament whom they should see or not."

GAZA CITY — The Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza have destroyed more than 20 homes claiming they were built without permits, a Palestinian human rights group said on Wednesday.

"Twenty families -- about 150 people -- lost their homes," the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said in a statement.

It said the houses in the southern city of Rafah were destroyed by police on Sunday "because they were built on government land."

Two more houses under construction were destroyed on Monday in nearby Khan Yunis, PCHR said.

It warned that 180 more homes could soon be razed in Rafah and urged Hamas to "put an end to all house demolition operations," adding that most of those affected were poor people whose homes were previously destroyed in Israeli attacks.

Some residents complained that police had hit them with batons during the demolition operation.

Mohammed Awad, a Hamas official, said the decision was taken by a court and not the government.

An overcrowded coastal territory, the Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Palestinians have been holding the title of "refugees" for over six decades w They have succeeded in creating a unique historical narrative for themselves w This myth is growing, so it should be shattered and the real facts presented: the Palestinian population before the first Aliya was sparse, hundreds of thousands of Jews were also expelled from Arab countries, and there is no precedent anywhere in the world for the right of return w

The Nakba - the story of the Palestinian refugees is the greatest success story in the history of modern times - a success that is a complete fraud. There is no other group of "refugees" in the world that has gotten such broad global coverage. Not a week goes by without a conference, another conference, about the wretched state of the Palestinians. There is not a campus in the West that does not devote countless events, conferences and publications, each year or each month to the issue of the Palestinian refugees. They have become the ultimate victims. A million calamities and injustices and expulsions and population exchanges and acts of genocide and slaughter and wars have befallen the world since the Arabs, among them the Palestinians, declared a war of annihilation on Israel - but the Nakba of the Palestinians takes up most of the space. A visitor from another planet would think that it was the greatest injustice suffered by the entire universe since the Second World War. So it is best to shatter this lie. It is best to present the real facts. It is best to expose the fraud.

The Jews came to the area of the Land of Israel, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, in many small waves, back before the First Aliya. Did they really expel millions of Arabs? Well, there is no debating the fact that in those years there were no "Palestinians" and there was no "Palestine" and there was no "Palestinian identity." And, mainly, there was no real boundary between Arabs from Syria, Egypt or Jordan. There was a steady stream of people. In the years in which Muhammad Ali and his son conquered this region in 1831 - 1840, they sent many Arabs from Egypt to Gaza, Jaffa and other cities. The Jews who also arrived in Jaffa during those years helped to develop the city as well.

Forgotten research findings

There is a debate among historians over the number of Arabs who lived during those years in the area of "Palestine," which, in effect, was composed of districts (Sanjaks) that were subject to Damascus or Beirut, as part of the Ottoman Empire. The most serious testimony about what existed before the First Aliya is a forgotten one. It's known to many scholars, but it doesn't exist in the public discourse. It was made by a delegation of British researchers -the Palestine Exploration Fund- which traveled through the western Land of Israel in 1871 - 1878, from Dan to Beer Sheba, and published a precise and authentic map of settlements in 26 parts, which is rare for its size, type and authenticity. The researchers found a small number of sparse settlements here. The journalist Zeev Galili published a comprehensive investigation following publication of the map, and found that Haifa, for example, was a settlement of 440 x 190 meters. No more than that. Acre and Nazareth were larger settlements, whose area was 600 x 300 meters. The size of Jaffa was 540 x 240 meters. Jerusalem was situated between the walls, and was relatively huge, about 1,000 meters x 1,000 meters. There were a total of about 100,000 residents. A rare collection of photographs of the Land of Israel in those years clarifies the size of the settlements, and gives another fascinating look at those times.

There are those who bring up the famous tour of the Land of Israel in 1891 by Achad Ha'am, who also found cultivated and flourishing fields. It seems, however, that the impressions of Achad Ha'am are dwarfed by a series of well-established findings from that era. Another visitor, like Achad Ha'am, was Mark Twain, who toured the land in 1865. "....A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a silent mournful expanse A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tabor safely... We never saw a human being on the whole route. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes desolate and unlovely these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness that melancholy ruin of Capernaum; this stupid village of Tiberias slumbering under its six funereal plumes of palms" Of the same mind was Henry Baker Tristram, who made several visits to the Holy Land during those same years, and his descriptions are very close to those of Twain's.

It appears, however, that the findings of the research delegation are above any dispute. These were not chance visitors. They were researchers who stayed here for years, researched the land, went from settlement to settlement, measured every mountain, settlement and hill, and published six volumes. One of the researchers, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, said about the Judea region that "mile after mile not a living thing is to be seen."

Despite these findings, there is a sharp debate among researchers, historians and demographers about the number of Arabs who lived in the area before the First Aliya. The estimates range from 100,000 according to the British research delegation and hundreds of thousands according to other researchers. There is another dispute on the question of the extent of Arab immigration to Israel following the advent of Zionism. This issue also occupied other researchers, among them Moshe Braver and Moshe Sharon.

With regard to the immigration, we should add that as long as the government was Arab or Muslim, the people sought a better place to live. The Arabs of the region were under Egyptian and Jordanian rule for two decades (1948-1967), and they never demanded a state for themselves. They lived under a cruel régime (a subject for a separate article) and made every effort to emigrate to other countries. The change began in 1967. The Israeli government caused another attraction. That is the reason that many Palestinians prefer to return to the territories of Judea and Samaria, and that is the reason that many of them want to immigrate to Israel and become citizens (hundreds of thousands have already done so).

***

Throughout the years of the British Mandate, there were two populations here - Jews and Arabs. The original area of the Mandate, according to the Balfour Declaration, included the eastern side of the Jordan. As mentioned, the area was very sparsely populated. The establishment of a national homeland for the Jews would not have caused any injustice because there was no state here and there was no nation here. That was the real background to the Balfour Declaration. In 1922, the League of Nations cut off part of the promised area to give to the Hashemite family, and one year later the Golan Heights was also cut off to give to the French government in Syria.

Parallel to the UN resolution on partition, the Arab countries declared a war of annihilation on Israel. The result is well known. The declaration of war led to hundreds of thousands of Arabs being forced to move to neighboring countries. Many of them fled. Many testified that they were forced to leave under pressure of their leaders. There were also some who were evicted in the heat of battle. About 600,000 people became refugees.

But only the Palestinians, out of all those groups, have held the title of "refugees" for over six decades. They have succeeded in creating a unique historical narrative for themselves. This myth is also growing with the help of UNRWA, a group dedicated to taking care of the Palestinian refugees, separate from the care given to all the other refugees in the world by the UNHCR. Many countries, including Israel, help to maintain the UNRWA, which deals not only with assisting and perpetuating the refugee problem, but also with incitement. The tragedy is that if the Palestinians were to receive such treatment from the international community, their situation today would be far better.

The fraud that is called the right of return

In the many discussions in which I have participated, I asked my colleagues, devotees of the Palestinian narrative, when have deportees who declared war, and lost that war, been granted the "right of return?" Is there one among the dozens of groups and the tens of millions who experienced expulsion in the past century that has been granted a "right of return" in a manner that caused the political annihilation of a nation state? To this day I have not received an answer. Because there is no such right.

The Palestinian Authority presents a document which claims that there are precedents for a "right of return." The most serious example presented there is the Dayton Agreement of 1995 which allows the return, for example, of Serbs to Croatia. The circumstances, however, are different. First, the return was never implemented. Croatia allowed the return of Croatians but placed barriers on the return of Serbs. Second, even if it had been implemented, the return would not have undermined the existence of Croatia as the national state of the Croatian people. Another example presented by the Palestinians is an agreement from 1997 regarding Azerbaijan. This is also a fraud because a report from 2002 shows that the Muslims who were exiled to Azerbaijan did not return to Armenia, and the Armenians who arrived as refugees did not return to Azerbaijan. In effect, the Armenian constitution grants the right of return only to Armenians (similar to the Israeli Law of Return, which exists in other countries around the world). The other examples presented by the Palestinians, from Africa and South America, are also irrelevant to the many population exchanges around the world and certainly to the population exchanges between the Arab countries and Israel.

The Palestinians are also relying on resolution 194, so it should be recalled that the Arabs presented a united front in opposition to the resolution. They knew why. Because it is a resolution which, in effect, is based on recognition in a previous resolution - the partition resolution - which grants international legitimacy to recognition of the Jewish state. There are other stipulations in that resolution, such as the creation of suitable conditions and pre-agreement to the fact that candidates for return must agree to live in peace with their neighbors. Needless to say, the Palestinians are insisting on non-recognition of the Jewish state, which shows that the conditions have not been created and certainly that the return is for the purpose of eliminating the Jewish entity and not for the purpose of peace. And as Abu-Mazen stated in May 2009, he does not recognize the Jewish state because it is liable to prevent the return of the masses.

One of the Palestinian claims is that for the purpose of resolving the conflict, the Palestinian Nakba must be recognized, and primarily the Israeli responsibility for the refugee problem. The truth is the opposite. Cultivating the myth of the Nakba is not what is delaying resolution of the conflict, because the Palestinians are busy reinforcing the problem, inflating it and insisting that it is different from any international precedent. They are forgetting that they are the ones who preferred to support the Nazi axis of evil. They are the ones who refused the partition proposal. They are the ones who declared a war of annihilation. They are the ones who started the war. They are forgetting that a greater number of Jews were persecuted, dispossessed and expelled from Arab countries. As long as they continue the myth of the Nakba, and delete the basic facts, they only perpetuate their suffering. And despite all this, the Palestinians deserve respect, freedom and independence. But alongside of Israel. Not instead of Israel. And not by means of the Nakba, which is no more than a political fraud and that a historical fraud.

To Aharonovitch we say, don't rejoice in your incitement against the Arab parties and leaders and the Islamic Movement. Those who incite against us, their natural place is under our shoes. Mr. Aharonovitch, if you call for our transfer, you are the first who should leave. We will continue to stay here as long as the za'atar (Middle Eatsern herb) and olives are here."

He warned, "Mr. Aharonovitch and all those hiding behind you, don't put us in a corner because the more radical one among us will go mad. We will all rise and defend our present and our future and our children's. We must not despair; we won't despair."

He referred to the settlements as "a spreading cancer" and said: "There is a cancer called communities inside the West Bank. This disease is spreading in occupied Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights. We know this cancer has managed to establish 1,000 factories and has managed to produce 3,000 products. We call on you to avoid buying from this cancer. Put all these products in the dustbin, choke the economy of these communities. This cancer should be choked until the occupation ends and is lifted from all of Jerusalem."

Allah will send his wrath down from the skies upon the Jews and their collaborators. Allah will make the sea rage against all the oppressors. Allah will poison the air breathed by the Jews, the Americans, the Crusaders, and all the Zionists. May Allah turn the food that they eat to poison in their bellies.The Jews, just like a cancer, operate via dormant cells, until the body collapses. We must stop this swelling, criminal, Zionist cancer.

"The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular " The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims" The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them'" [PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 29, 2010]

"This means that if the international community grants the right of return to the six million Palestinian refugees across the world to their homes in Haifa, Yaffa, and Akko [Acre], then there will no longer be an occupying state," Al-Haya said.The return of Palestinian refugees, he said, would signal the end of Israeli occupation, and was paramount in the movement's 1967 border proposal.

Gaza - Ma'an - Hamas' acceptance of 1967 borders, in exchange for a 10-year truce, would not involve the recognition of Israel, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Haya said Wednesday.

The proposal put forward by Hamas would see the acceptance of a Palestinian state "in stages" on the green line, the 1967 armistice line, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and "the return of all refugees without recognizing Israel in exchange for a 10-year truce," Al-Haya said during a Hamas conference to mark Nakba Day in Gaza City's Ash-Shuja'iyeh neighborhood.

"This means that if the international community grants the right of return to the six million Palestinian refugees across the world to their homes in Haifa, Yaffa, and Akko [Acre], then there will no longer be an occupying state," Al-Haya said.

The return of Palestinian refugees, he said, would signal the end of Israeli occupation, and was paramount in the movement's 1967 border proposal.

Israel is waging a "fierce war to terminate this right," the Hamas official said, adding that the right of return is "the cornerstone of the Palestinian cause."

"These rights will not be restored but by force," he added.

Moreover, the offer put forward by the Islamist movement "differs greatly from that of Fatah," concerning the creation of a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.

"The Palestinians should be prepared with culture, faith, weapons and unity among each other," Al-Haya said.

"The siege will not be lifted without more power and steadfastness because the world does respect the weak and knows no mercy," The Hamas official added.

Al-Haya called on rival movement Fatah to consider other options put forward by Palestinian factions in relation to the peace process, saying "come, let us have unity among our people on Palestinian principles. Why should we deprive our people of open options."

Two weeks prior, the Gaza government confirmed that it had reached out to the US administration in written letters, denying, however, that notes were related to a ceasefire deal.

"The government sent a letter to US president Barack Obama a few months ago calling for an end to Israel's siege and an end the double standards [America] employed while dealing with the Palestinian cause," de facto government spokesman Taher An-Nunu said via news release on Monday.

The comments followed a report in Hebrew language Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which said de facto government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had written to Obama two weeks ago saying he was prepared "recognize Israel within the 1967 borders in exchange for a ceasefire agreement."

The letters, An-Nunu said, contained nothing that was not part of official government policy, which includes the right to resist Israeli forces until they withdraw from areas occupied in 1967.

The letter simply "included a request for Obama to change his policy towards the Palestinian people and their rights," An-Nunu wrote.

Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. The aim? By protecting their shared environmental heritage, they seek to promote regional development and create the conditions necessary for an enduring peace.

At an international conference held in Amman on 3 May, FoEME issued two reports concerning the current state of the River Jordan, and what needs to be done to remedy a worsening environmental problem. In brief, the organisation calls on the Israeli and Jordanian governments and the Palestinian Authority to work together to return fresh water to the near-dry Jordan river. For the first time the FoEME identified the ecological water needs of the Lower Jordan River and from where that water can come.

According to these studies, in the past 50 years more than 98 per cent of the river's water has been diverted to supply the needs of Jordan, Syria and Israel. The river now carries about 30 million cubic metres of water a year, compared to 1.3 billion cubic metres prior to the 1930s.

Based on the first study, Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME Jordanian Director, identifies the problem as the near-total diversion of fresh water from the river, resulting in a 50 per cent loss of biodiversity. He says that some 400 million cubic metres (mcm) of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life.

FoEME Palestinian Director Nader Khateeb assesses responsibility for the annual return of the river's water, based on the proportions diverted, as 200 mcm by the Israeli government, 90 mcm by the Jordanian government and 100 mcm by the Syrian government.

That amount, which exceeds Israel's current water desalination output, seems impossible in light of the water shortage in the region. But FoEME states that the goal can be met, and in the second study, which deals with current poor water practices, explains how. It identifies over a billion cubic metres of water that could be saved and made available from water economies by Israel, Jordan and even Palestine for reviving the Lower Jordan River.

Gidon Bromberg, FoEME Israeli Director, is quoted as saying: "In the middle of the desert we continue to flush our toilets with fresh water rather then using greywater or  even better  waterless toilets. We can do much better in reducing water loss and we need to treat and reuse all of the sewage water that we produce." ("Greywater" is waste water resulting from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing and bathing. Waste water generated from toilets is designated "blackwater").

"If conservation measures are taken in Jordan, Israel and the PA," says Bromberg, "large amounts of water could be put toward rehabilitating the Jordan, at a cost below that of desalination." Measures proposed include repairing leaks in the water distribution system and covering reservoirs to decrease evaporation.

The UN has attempted to concentrate the world's mind on water usage and mis-usage generally by declaring 22 March "International Water Day". Israel takes the subject seriously, and while a parliamentary commission is currently charged with investigating how to meet the country's increasing water needs, reservoirs with a combined storage capacity of some 66 billion gallons are being constructed specifically to contain recycled and flood water. Construction has alsojust begun on a water treatment plant at Bitanya, south of LakeKinneret, The plant will treat the sewage now coming in from the Tiberias area and will also desalinate brackish water. The treated wastewater will be used for irrigation, allowing Israel's Water Agency to send water from LakeKinneret into the southern Jordan. Within several years, it is claimed, all the major sources of pollution of the southern Jordan will be taken care of.

Meanwhile the Southern Jordan administration, which includes representatives from local government and government ministries, is formulating a plan for rehabilitating the river which will cover such issues as water quantity and quality, public access, and the location of nature reserves. FoEME plan to turn PeaceIsland, at the confluence of the Yarmuk and the Jordan, into a joint Israeli-Jordanian park that will attract tourists. Work on creating the park and rehabilitating the Jordan River is to be carried out in parallel.

Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon all share the waters of the Jordan river and its source tributaries. Water is generally perceived as one of the high priority issues in the Arab-Israeli dispute. The key to success is co-operation, a co-operation based on self-interest. The Jordan Times recently gave particularly encouraging support for the position of FoEME: "All the countries on the river banks have to stop overusing its water, stop polluting it and assist in restoring its traditional sources of freshwater. If inaction continues, the riparian countries will face the condemnation of the international community."

Water resources in the Jordan river basin are trans-boundary. Sharing them has been an inevitable feature of life in the region in the past, is so now, and will remain so following any peace accord. Issues remain outstanding  one particular problem is in respect of the West Bank which largely contains the three principal underground aquifers of the region. One of these aquifers provides Tel-Aviv with most of its water. The eventual peace agreement, therefore, and a regional water settlement are closely interdependent, and the fact of life that water resources have to be shared should serve as a considerable inducement on all parties to reach agreement on the bigger issues.

The Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics came out with its statistics on the 62nd anniversary of Israel's birth. As I mentioned last week, they say that the Palestinian Arab population has increased by a factor of eight in those years.

Ma'an's more extensive quotation of their statistics says something that is clearly not true:

The PCBS wrote that as a direct result of the expulsion of Palestinians from their ancestral homelands in 1948, Gaza has become the most densely populated place on earth.

According to their statistics, the population density at end of 2009 was 663 individuals per km2 of which 439 individuals per km2 live in the West Bank and 4,140 individuals per km2 in Gaza Strip. In Israel, the population density reached 350 individuals per km2.

This is a baldfaced lie.

The latest numbers of population density for territories and nations show that Gaza, if it is reckoned as a separate entity, would be in sixth place, way behind Macau (18,500/km2), Monaco (16,900/km2), Singapore, Hong Kong and Gilbraltar.

(I had exposed this oft-stated lie years ago, and even created a video about it:)

Now, the PCBS is an official agency of the PA. Its population statistics are used worldwide because they are considered to be a reliable organization. People make decisions based on their reports.

If they are lying about something so easily disproven, how can we trust them when they publicize statistics about anything else?

Gaza's Hamas rulers say they have executed three convicted killers, carrying out another set of death sentences that have been criticized by rights groups.

A medical official said the bullet-riddled bodies were dumped at a Gaza hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Tuesday's executions were the second official death penalties carried out since Hamas' 2007 takeover of Gaza. Human rights groups have also accused Hamas security forces of involvement in extrajudicial killings, including of suspected collaborators with Israel.

The Gaza Interior Ministry described the men executed as convicted killers but gave no details.

In April, Hamas executed two men accused of collaborating with Israel. It was the first time the death penalty has been carried out in Gaza since Hamas violently seized power in the coastal area in 2007.

When Palestinian Arabs speak of the "right of return," what exactly do they mean?

Most people would say that it means that Palestinian Arabs and their numerous descendants would have the unlimited right to move back to the homes they left in Palestine in 1948, in line with UN GA resolution 194. That same resolution goes on to say that those who choose not to "return" would be compensated.

In other words, it is characterized as a right for people to be able to determine their own destiny and as a human right for people to live wherever they want to.

This is not true.

There was a Gaza Nakba rally yesterday, and the speakers made very clear that their concept of the "right to return" is the exact antithesis of human rights.

The speakers there complained about "the danger of attempts to dilute the letter and the concept of the right of return and to try a new concept instead, the compensation of Palestinian refugees, or the establishment of houses for them in other lands."

One of the speakers said that the PA negotiating about the "right of return" is "another catastrophe for the Palestinian people, stressing that the right of return is a sacred right, individually and collectively, under which there is no statute of limitations, that can only be achieved only through resistance and the unity of Palestinian ranks, and [he who negotiates on these concepts] is a traitor."

Another speaker supports keeping Palestinian Arabs in camps because they have been the basis of the "Palestinian revolution" and they were where resistance started. He added that even the idea of Palestinian Arabs moving to "Palestine" is anathema.

There is a common thread here: none of the people advocating for the "right of return" in Arabic accept the basic concept of individual choice.

If an Arab in a Lebanese UNRWA camp wants to become a citizen of the country in which he is born, he must be denied that right because it conflicts with this fictional "right of return."

If an Palestinian Arab born in Syria whose grandfather was born in Jaffa wants to move to Jericho upon the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, he is denied that right because it conflicts with the "right of return."

If an Arab in Europe who descended from Palestinian Arabs wants to take money to drop his claim to move "back" to a land he has no interest in living in, he is denied that opportunity because the people who support the "right of return" do not want to dilute their support.

They explicitly say that they prefer Palestinian Arabs to be stateless and miserable in camps in order to keep them angry at Israel. The anachronistic camps which should have been dismantled five decades ago are held up as shining examples of Palestinian Arab unity - a unity that is externally imposed, not by Israel but by Arab leaders who are dead-set against providing basic human rights to those Arabs unfortunate enough to have had their ancestors living in Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, the UNRWA definition of "refugee."

By definition, human rights are individual rights, not collective rights. The "right of return," by taking away all individual choice, is the very antithesis of human rights. It is an aggressive assault on the human rights of millions of people, purposefully cloaked in the false assertion of being a "right."

The nakba exists today because of this assault on human rights perpetrated by Arab leaders and acquiesced to by Western powers, foremost the UN. Even if one believes that Israel is responsible for the start of the nakba, the perpetuation of it for 62 years is squarely the responsibility of the Arab world and the Palestinian Arab leadership who gladly bargain the human rights of their people for their own political purposes.

And the organizations that claim to care most about human rights do not say a word about this open assault on the human rights of millions.

Jerusalem cuts off services to Haredi neighborhoods due to violent protests; at least 30 arrested in last two days.By Liel Kyzer, Yair Ettinger and Nir Hasson

The Jerusalem municipality on Sunday evening cut off services to a number of ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, after hundreds of protesters clashed with police during demonstrations against the state's decision to relocate ancient remains buried at the site of a planned emergency room in Ashkelon.

Close to 700 Haredim took part in the Sunday demonstration in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square organized by the Eda Haredit sect, the extreme ultra-Orthodox faction that has been most vocal in its objection to the relocation of the human remains in Ashkelon.

Several municipal employees in the capital were beaten on Sunday by angry Haredi demonstrators, and ultra-Orthodox youth staged riots along Bar-Ilan Street. Authorities arrested at least 30 Haredi protesters in the city.

Due to "a long list of violent incidents, including attacks on municipal workers and the vandalism of city facilities at the hands of the Haredi protesters, the city has decided to remove employees from these neighborhoods and immediately halt all activities until the violence and lack of concern for human life and property ends," said the municipality.

"They are arresting righteous Yeshiva students for protesting the desecration of graves," said Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, the leader of the Haredi group that organized the protest. "It is they [the police] who should be arrested."

The controversial plan has sparked outrage among Israel'sultra-Orthodox community, as it views the removal of buried remains as sacrilege.The Israel Antiquities Authority on Sunday said preliminary findings from the excavation at the site of the planned emergency room reveal that the ancient remains buried there are not in fact Jewish, but from the Byzantine era.

Several demonstrators set fire to garbage bins, and traffic to and from the square was blocked. Shortly after the protest began, dozens of ultra-Orthodox youth also descended on Bar-Ilan Street and began hurling stones and bottles. They burned garbage bins in the middle of the road to block traffic and strewed debris and garbage throughout the street.

A large police force, including mounted officers, dispersed the crowd using water cannons. Three of the rioters were arrested and taken into custody.Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, the leader of the Eda Haredit, charged, "They are arresting righteous yeshiva students who are protesting the desecration of graves. It is they [the police] who ought to be put in prison."

"Only risking lives will enable us to stop the desecration," added Rabbi David Shmidel, the head of Atra Kadisha, an organization dedicated to preserving Jewish places of burial. "We will fight even if they dig up the graves of soldiers and other Jews."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Sunday said that the government's decision to construct the bombproof emergency room at Barzilai Medical Center is in the public's best interest, despite opposition from the ultra-Orthodox community.

"After the Second Lebanon War, we made a decision to erect a new emergency room next to Barzilai Medical Center," said Netanyahu at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "There is an important ultra-Orthodox public that is offended by this. We reached a decision to implement [the plan] and the general public's interest is the deciding factor."

Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush on Sunday visited the medical center to register his opposition to the project, calling the excavations an "embarrassment and a disgrace".

"It was possible to find alternatives to digging up graves that may be Jewish," Porush said. "It would have been preferable to have found a compromise."Netanyahu had refused permission for a preliminary check to ascertain that the graves were not Jewish, Porush said. In response to Porush's comments, the head of the Ashkelon municipal council, Benny Vaknin, said: "The real shame is with the people who delayed construction of the bombproof emergency room, while during Operation Cast Lead people could have died…That is the biggest disgrace."

The document also stated that Operation Cast Lead and the way it was covered in the media have further polarized the public opinion toward Israel. "The apparent result of the military operation, based on the criticism being expressed in the Netherlands, is that there is a slow and steady erosion in the legitimacy of the State of Israel. This affects the Jewish community that is exposed to criticism due to its connection to Israel."

Israel has been slowly losing its allies around the world  but it seems that even those countries with a special relationship with the Jewish state are steadily growing their distance.

An internal document prepared by the Foreign Ministry and obtained by Ynet shows that the Netherlands joined the list of countries whose support for Israel has been on a constant decrease.

According to the document, "In recent years there has been a decline in the historic support for Israel among the Dutch public. The Netherlands is a country that places human rights high on its international agenda, as well as the issue of international law.

"The prolonged conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, along with negative coverage in the Dutch media have been the central factors leading to the declining support," the document notes.

The Palestinians, according to the current stance, "Are being portrayed as the weak side whose rights are violated, and as a result they enjoy sympathy and support from the Dutch public. Other factors to take under consideration are the influence of the Muslim community in the Netherlands, the decrease in feelings of guilt following the treatment of Dutch Jewry in World War II and the declining status of religion in the country (and a consequential decline in Christian support)."

Cast Lead eroded Israel's legitimacy The document also stated that Operation Cast Lead and the way it was covered in the media have further polarized the public opinion toward Israel. "The apparent result of the military operation, based on the criticism being expressed in the Netherlands, is that there is a slow and steady erosion in the legitimacy of the State of Israel. This affects the Jewish community that is exposed to criticism due to its connection to Israel."

The Foreign Ministry in Israel accuses The Dutch Foreign Ministry for the country's lack of support for the Jewish state. According to the document, "The Dutch foreign minister has to deal with the bureaucracy of a ministry that is unsympathetic on the one hand, and opposition in the Parliament on the other."

However, members in the Foreign Ministry laud Dutch Foreign Minister Maxim Verhagen, who is considered "very friendly toward Israel," while Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende also gets good marks for "keeping a balanced policy toward Israel within the Dutch government."